Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. C.R.A.Z.Y. — CDN $771,020 — N.AM $771,020 — 100%Lords of Dogtown — CDN $862,322 — N.AM $9,336,000 — 9.2%The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants — CDN $2,124,650 — N.AM $23,691,000 — 9.0%Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith — CDN $28,503,437 — N.AM $332,108,000 — 8.6%Madagascar — CDN $10,635,193... Read more
Imagine Marvel buying DC, or Pepsi buying Coke. That’s kind of what it feels like to hear that Cineplex Galaxy LP is taking the Famous Players theatre chain off of the hands of Viacom Inc., as reported today by the Canadian Press, Associated Press, Reuters and The Globe and Mail. I don’t know much about the movie-theatre culture back east, but I do know that, in Vancouver, for as long as I can remember and up until Cinemark opened a... Read more
Time for another batch of news stories. 1. Reuters reports that Cinderella Man saw its box-office take drop 48% this weekend, compared to its opening take one week ago. This usually signifies that a film is flopping. Seabiscuit, by comparison, dropped only 16% in its second weekend two years ago. So, it looks like Ron Howard’s boxing drama won’t be this summer’s word-of-mouth Depression-era hit. I think the domestic box-office failures of this film and Kingdom of Heaven just go... Read more
Mark Goodacre links to this page at the Society of Biblical Literature’s website, which includes a 74-minute MP3 of a panel discussion on The Passion of the Christ that took place seven months ago. Participants include co-writer Benedict Fitzgerald, translator and consultant Fr. William J. Fulco, chair David Shepherd, and scholars Alice Bach and Clayton Jefford. Goodacre was at the event himself and posted his own comments at that time. I just came across this recording today, myself, so here... Read more
First, for the handful of obsessive film buffs out there who never read the tabloids, Mr. & Mrs. Smith has nothing to do with the 1940s screwball comedy of that name directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Instead, it is a curious hybrid of action movie and domestic comedy that stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as professional assassins who are married to each other but have kept their jobs secret from one another. Each spouse has all sorts of gadgets and... Read more
Just a few links. 1. My reviews of this week’s bored-married-couple comedies, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Honeymooners, are now up at CT Movies. It’s always interesting to see what makes it through the editing process and what doesn’t, especially where publications that cater to an evangelical readership are concerned. In the latter review, the bit where I quote John Leguizamo promising a dog some “bitches” made it through — would it have passed muster if he had referred... Read more
When I was a boy, I had a dream in which some grown-up called me a “kid”, and I, feeling a bit indignant, replied, “So I’m a goat, am I?” And then I sprouted horns, tilted my head down, and rammed the guy in the gut. (I think my dream may have been influenced by the 1936 cartoon Alpine Climbers, in which Donald Duck charges down a hill and head-butts a mountain-goat, but that’s a guess.) I thought the dream... Read more
This Monday, I will have been married for four months. So it’s kind of funny that I recently had to review two different films that are opening tomorrow, both of which happen to put the marital status of their protagonists right there in the titles. I’ll post links to my reviews of The Honeymooners and Mr. & Mrs. Smith when they go up tomorrow, but for now, suffice to say that I was amused to see that, in both films,... Read more
She’s a Narniac, Narniac at your doorAnd she’s hyping like she’s never hyped before… Ahem. Sorry ’bout that. The following item related to the upcoming Narnia movie was recently posted to a SF-related listserv that I subscribe to, and the person who posted it wasn’t particularly happy about it. :::::: Ground Force Network :::::: OK, everyone, we’re about to give you the CHANCE OF A LIFETIME. Only a select group of people are being given this opportunity and you’re one... Read more
Here are some of the more interesting stories that came up today. 1. Wolfgang Petersen just can’t stay out of the water. Following Das Boot (1981) and The Perfect Storm (2000), he is now working on a remake of The Poseidon Adventure (1972). The Hollywood Reporter says the film will star Kurt Russell as an ex-fireman (not the same character he played in 1991’s Backdraft, I assume), disaster-movie veteran Emmy Rossum (The Day After Tomorrow) as his daughter, Andre Braugher... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In